A Brief Look at Crime 07/02 – 07/08

Fairhurst, 80, was hospitalized on Jan. 16, 2017, and died there nine days later. Her weight had dropped 50 pounds in the last months of her life, Quinn’s office said, and it was determined that malnutrition and bed sores contributed to her death. Investigators determined that Fairhurst suffered a stroke in Sept. 2013 and was homebound starting in 2014. According to Quinn’s office, she lived in one unit of a Westport duplex while the other side was occupied by Medeiros and her family. Medeiros was Fairhurst’s longtime friend, caregiver and health care proxy, and she also had power of attorney over Fairhurst’s finances, Quinn’s office said. Prosecutors allege she failed to provide adequate medical attention to Fairhurst, as it appeared she had not received professional medical care in the 18 months prior to her death. Prosecutors also allege that in November 2013 Medeiros withdrew approximately $100,000 from Fairhurst’s checking account with one bank and deposited it into Fairhurst’s savings account at another bank. Then, she allegedly withdrew $104,186.89 from that account and closed it, before transferring the money to her son and his wife, Clifford and Kristin Medeiros. Court documents obtained by Eyewitness News revealed he has a criminal history of “violence, guns” and a background of “drug addiction and gambling addiction.”

Over the course four years, a waitress at a Brooklyn diner used information from one of her regular patrons to write checks, open lines of credit and otherwise spend nearly half a million dollars on shopping, gambling trips and vacations. Now, she’s looking at a few years in jail—and paying back the money. Legall spent more than $200,000 on retail, restaurants, hotels and clubs from New York to Atlantic City and as far away as Miami. Additionally, she pulled nearly $75,000 in cash advances using the widow’s credit cards. Finally, stealing the unknowing elderly woman’s identity, Legall opened profiles linked to her own phone and email with online gambling sites to bet on horse racing. “This defendant preyed on an elderly and lonely widow, gained her trust and then used the victim’s money as her own private bank account to pay for gambling, vacations and other expenses,” said Attorney General Gonzalez. “Her greedy betrayal was egregious and deplorable. My Office will remain vigilant in protecting our seniors and other vulnerable residents from abuse and exploitation.”

Houston City Councilman Greg Travis told a talk radio host he believes Texas poker clubs are “illegal under Texas law,” but card room operators disagree. On April 30, Tom “3betpanda” Steinbach was shot outside the Texas Card House, a social poker club in the Austin area. Steinback was not killed, but the violence raises concerns about safety and security at private card rooms in the Lone Star State. Travis, who was elected to Houston’s City Council District G in November 2015, took his concerns one step further. “I am not one of these people that is opposed to (poker) by any measure, but I do have a problem when it’s illegal,” Travis told the hosts of Poker Lab Radio on Houston’s SportsTalk790 in response to a question about Texas poker clubs. “And right now, it is illegal under Texas law. When asked how he would vote if it were up to him to decide whether or not his poker clubs should be allowed in his city, he emphatically said, “I would have to vote no because I’m not going to go against state law.”*

A Polk County man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and another 35 on probation for more than 100 counts each of dog fighting and animal cruelty. It all started with a tip to Polk County police back in August 2017. Sadly, that tip uncovered exactly what police feared on Cashtown Road – several dogs nearly starved to death. Several months later, the police chief explained why the animal cruelty charges never escalated to felonies. “We wanted felony, but according to the statute, it has to be aggravated, which means he has to break their bones or damage them, so it doesn’t meet the threshold of a felony,” said Polk Co. Police Chief Kenny Dodd. The judge’s leeway in sentencing varied widely from a year to life in prison. The defense called that proposal that ridiculous and wanted a year in jail with credit for the 5 months he had already served. He told the judge that the state’s problem with dog fighting isn’t violence but rather that it’s a form of gambling that isn’t taxable. Upon hearing those claims, the woman rehabilitating Dani the dog described his words as “heartless.”

David Bradford was jailed after stealing from his employers, having amassed debts of more than £500,000 feeding his addiction. The 61-year-old, of Waterthorpe, has welcomed the Government’s decision to slash the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) from £100 to £2, but he says more must be done to help problem gamblers. Numerous support groups exist for drug and alcohol addicts, he says there is just one NHS clinic in the whole of England for gambling addicts despite suicide rates being higher among that group. “The one thing that’s missing is someone to catch people when they become addicted, and to support them and their family,” said the former finance director, who now works as a courier. “There are lots of NHS clinics for drug addicts and alcoholics but there’s just one for gambling addicts, which is in London. You would have thought there would be a dozen or so covering different areas and helping people turn their lives around. People die of suicide through gambling than through drug or alcohol addiction. “If my family had disowned me, which would have been quite understandable, I dread to think where I would have ended up.”

State regulators have accused Boomtown casino in Reno of violating Nevada’s Internet laws by linking in with two foreign companies that offered gaming websites. The Nevada Gaming Control Board, in a complaint filed Wednesday, is asking Boomtown be fined or have disciplinary action taken against its licenses for the violations that took place between March and August 2017. The casino has a chance to challenge the accusations. The complaint says Boomtown found it was too expensive to offer free games on its website. So it selected Affiliate Edge and Deck Media, both based in Curacao, to provide the service. It said these firms offered 15 games, 11 of them allowing wagering by U.S. customers. The gaming board said a Boomtown casino advertisement was on three of the sites and Boomtown received a commission on the amount of money lost. Affiliate Edge sent Boomtown a commission, according to the complaint prepared by Senior Deputy Attorney General John Michela. The law says Internet gaming isn’t allowed unless licensed by the state. Boomtown never received a license. In addition, it charges this was an unsuitable method of operations that reflected discredit on the state and Nevada’s gaming industry.

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